research

Using Africa to study Mars

Using Africa to study Mars

No, you’re not dreaming - we really do have a Martian geologist. While the majority of her work is done remotely via the Curiosity Rover (NASA’s rover currently on Mars), it is still incredibly important to maintain skills as a field geologist and to understand geologic processes that happen on EVERY planet - which took our resident Mars expert, Maddy, to Africa.

This summer, Maddy spent several weeks just outside of Noordoewer, Namibia, across the border near Vioolsdrif, South Africa, and within the Richtersveld World Heritage Site in South Africa. All of these places host rocks detailing an ancient ocean setting from over 500 million years ago in what was called the Cambrian Period, and helped Maddy to better understand her own Martian research. Keep it up, Maddy!

Huge conference, tiny virus

Huge conference, tiny virus

Tiffany, a PhD student in the Roach lab, attended her first phage conference this week in the beautiful Olympia, Washington! Phages are the world’s tiniest organisms: and as viruses that infect bacteria, they have recently gotten the scientific world’s eye as a promising treatment for bacterial infections. Tiffany had a blast presenting her research, chugging a TON of coffee (as one does at conferences), and attending workshops of the latest and greatest in the phage world, including her own mentor, Dr. Dwayne Roach.

There was even dance parties. Lots and lots of dance parties. Sounds like a blast, Tiff!

A RARE gem

A RARE gem

Recently, PassioInventa’s co-founder and resident StairMaster enthusiast Blaide was awarded an AWESOME scholarship from BioMarin Pharmaceutics, a pharmaceutical company that specializes in creating therapies for people with rare genetic disorders. The RARE Scholar Award is in its second year and awards $5,000 to carefully selected undergraduate and graduate students excelling in their studies and extracurriculars, all the while managing a rare genetic disorder. The Columbus Dispatch (Blaide’s hometown newspaper) wrote a great article on his award that features an interview with Blaide about his genetic disorder, and can be found here. Way to go, guy!

At an Elasmobranch conference, the shark jokes quickly wear fin

At an Elasmobranch conference, the shark jokes quickly wear fin

Sharks… in the mountains??

This week, our writer Elana had the opportunity to represent her lab - the Shark Research and Conservation program at the University of Miami - at the Conference of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists in Snowbird, Utah, held by the American Elasmobranch Society. This magical meeting of shark and reptile enthusiasts brought together a suite of researchers all focusing on cartilaginous fish: aka sharks, skates, and rays. Needless to say, Elana was in heaven!

At the conference, Elana proudly presented part of her masters’ research, and the talk was a huge success; she even got a collaborator out of it. It’s always nice to feel “in your element,” especially in the sciences, where you are normally surrounded by things you don’t know. Congratulations, and glad you had fun!!

On the road to candidacy

On the road to candidacy

Big congrats to Jenna, our resident microbiologist, who passed her Written qualifying exams this week! In finishing these, she is officially halfway to making the transition from a PhD student to a PhD candidate. In the grad school world, this is huge. It means you have spent enough years in the program (usually 2-3) and amassed enough knowledge to pass some really tough exams (written and oral) and propose a plan for the project you’ll complete during the rest of your PhD.

Having milestones to accomplish is critical to maintaining optimism and a healthy level of obsession for your work in graduate school. We’re proud of you, Jenna!

Bacteria, lobster dinnahs and some really cool science

Bacteria, lobster dinnahs and some really cool science

Congratulations to two of our writers, Ricky and Jason, who presented their research at the Gordon Research Conference for Environmental Microbiology last week! Scientific conferences are an awesome way to not only share your own research (and get new ideas), but also to hear about the latest advances happening in science. This particular conference was held in Boston, so you can bet they served us plenty of Chowda and that the Sam Adams flowed freely.

Conferences are usually a really fun thing for us scientists to go to; they provide a break from the usual routine and give us a chance to show off our work. You always come back feeling a little more successful and accomplished than when you left, and that leaves us wanting more. Now, back to the lab bench. Those bacteria aren’t going to grow themselves.

Sorting his way to the top - one cell at a time

Sorting his way to the top - one cell at a time

BIG congratulations to Alex, who won a big award this week - the Excellence in Cytometry award from the Southern California Flow Cytometry Association, or SoCal Flow (yes, it is just as cool as it sounds). Flow cytometry, one of the techniques Alex uses in his research, is something we scientists use to sort different types of cells based on their physical characteristics.

Alex was invited to give an oral presentation at the University of California, Irvine; the only student presenter to be included in the conference that day, and his talk was given right before a keynote speaker from CalTech. Talk about prestige. Keep it up man!